Break-up Songs for 2021

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put together a list of break-up songs! What have I been doing with my time? Wasting it, that’s what! There are a million lists of this type out there, so I’m not going to copy all the common break-up songs. I’ll just stick with songs that I like, or that are currently on any of my Spotify playlists. Let me know what you think about these songs in the comments below 🙂

Christina Perri “Jar of Hearts” with a memorable line, “…who do you think you are?”

This next one isn’t exactly a break-up song but I love the line, “The sun still rises, even through the rain.”

The Head and the Heart “Another Story”

One of my favorite songs during my middle school years, here’s “The King of Wishful Thinking” Go West. “I refuse to give into my blues.”

“Karma Police” Radiohead …haunting, memorable, and simply great. “This is what you get when you mess with us.”

“So Cruel” U2 …perhaps my favorite song of 2020, and maybe in my top 5 all time. This one stopped me in my tracks, and I haven’t actually started up again yet from it. “…To stay with you, I’d be a fool.”

“Guiding Light” Muse …I feel such remorse in this song. “I can’t hurt you anymore…” plus the guitar solo is more to me than the lyrics of so many other songs.

“Stars” Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. “I can’t look at the stars. They make me wonder where you are.”

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Face mask covering your face tats?

According to this blog post, around 3,000,000 people have face tattoos. That’s quite a bit more than I would’ve guessed, for sure! I was watching an episode of the Bachelorette and it was the hometown dates. I promise this connects to face tattoos, just hang on. 🙂 The Bachelorette Tayshia is at the point in her “righteous endeavor” that she’s doing the hometown dates. It looks a little different this year because, well, it’s 2020, so the families of the remaining men actually came to the Bachelorette compound and they all sort of pretended they were in their real hometown. Anyway, one of the families included the brother of Ivan, a guy hoping to end up with Tayshia. This brother was full of tattoos, including all over his face and neck.

Then, in a very random way, I found out for the first time ever who Lil Xan is. I regret ever finding out about this young man (no offense, Lil Xan). This rocked me enough to write up another post just about him. I won’t even ruin your day by including a picture.

But then I went down a rabbit hole wondering about how all these face tattoo people feel about wearing masks for coronavirus. It’s like they’re covering up someone’s masterpiece. Well, “masterpiece” might be a stretch, but the tattoos these people probably love are often covered by the masks. For those of you who work in sales, it would be like winning a big account but you’re not allowed to tell anyone. Or a football player scoring a touchdown that gets called back by a holding penalty. Seeing your dog walk upright but forgetting to hit record on your camera.

They’ve GOT to be disappointed with all these mask mandates, right? Of course, the two examples above (Ivan’s brother and Lil Xan) have tattoos near their eyes, too, so the masks don’t completely cover up all the ink.

Anyway, if you’re one of the three million that have a face tattoo and feel like sharing, comment below with your thoughts. I’ll be waiting curiously.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

That time my supervisor asked me to work over the holiday

The original title of this post was going to be, “Valuing people over jobs,” but that’s so boring, right? So I went with a tidbit from an experience I had awhile back when a boss asked if I was willing to work through the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ll share the details a little further into this.

So this idea that people are always to be valued over jobs is a tough topic. In this Thanksgiving scenario I’ll share with you, I believed I was deciding between my job and my family. Perhaps this wasn’t how the supervisor saw it, and maybe I was being selfish because I enjoy being with family. I also know it’s not as black and white as it may seem because sometimes the job has to be top priority. There are times I choose work over people, for various reasons, but for the last few years I’ve tried to keep in mind the following rank of priorities:

God

Family

Friends

Work

Me

…in that order. When it comes down to it, what’s my motivation? Is it to help people? Is it money? Is it something I think God would have me do? Having an income is important, and “money makes the world go ’round,” as they say, but now let’s get into the Thanksgiving story.

In a previous life I worked a 9 to 5 job, actually it was 9 to 6, Dolly! Thanksgiving was approaching and something came up that brought about the possibility that I would have to work over the holiday. I was called into my supervisor’s office and after I sat down, was asked about working that week and weekend. My plans had been to go to Florida to see my parents and siblings. SO my response was, “I’ll do it, but I won’t be happy about it.” There was no hesitation on whether I’d want to work or be with family, family I didn’t get to see often.

This did NOT go over well with the supervisor.

As it turns out, the something that might have come up didn’t, so I was able to go home for Thanksgiving anyway. I didn’t and won’t apologize for what I said. Of course, I wasn’t super happy at my work either, so that definitely played a role in my honest response.

How do you handle, or balance, work life and family life? Do you have any sort of mantra or guide you use in making work-related decisions? Chime in below, let’s chat! 🙂

-Out of the Wilderness

Merry Christmas from Out of the Wilderness!

I was driving around town the other day and came across a holiday-inspired home and thought it would be the perfect picture to post on Christmas. So here it is:

Nothing says Merry Christmas like lights, music, and Charlie Brown. But let’s also remember the true “reason for the season,” the birth of Jesus. He did something he didn’t have to do because we can’t do something we need to do. And that something is make things right with God. He didn’t have to come down to earth for us, but he did. He didn’t have to start life as a baby, but he did. He didn’t have to face opposition, ridicule, and death, but he did.

He did it for you. He did it for me. So I ask you on this Christmas day, what will you do about it? What will I do about it? I always come back to one key thought regarding my faith in him. Where is his body? You might doubt everything about the Christian faith, the Bible, the church, pastors, people you know. But Jesus was a real man. He was born. He lived. He died. But where is his body?

Spoiler alert, you’ll never find it. Why? I believe it’s because it’s no longer in the grave he was laid in after his crucifixion. So that means everything. The entire story is a roller coaster, but one of the beautiful parts is when Jesus left Heaven to join mankind on the earth he created. This is Christmas, Charlie Brown.

Jesus did what he didn’t have to do.

So to sum up, if you’re going to put up lights and decorations, do it big! Also, Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

-Out of the Wilderness

SpaghettiOs with meatballs, and Chris Burke from Life Goes On

As a vegan, the meatballs in SpaghettiOs are a spaghettiNoNo but in a dream recently, I had eaten a whole bowl! I specifically remember as I scooped the last spoonful thinking, I just gave up years of not eating meat*… but did this bowl have meatballs or did I heat up the original SpagettiOs (no meatballs)?

These are the kinds of dreams I’m grateful to wake up from. But I do have fond memories of SpaghettiOs. Growing up, this was the Sunday night dinner for my siblings and I as we watched Life Goes On, a show on ABC starring Chris Burke as Corky Thatcher. He was the first Down Syndrome actor to star in a major TV series. Also, we really wanted my sister (who also has Down Syndrome) to date him. So far, they have yet to meet… but maybe one day soon?

Chris, if you’re reading this… let me know if you want me to set you up with an awesome woman 🙂

OK, I’m done playing cupid… for now. I still remember bits and pieces of Life Goes On, and speaking of bits and pieces… SpaghettiOs. My dream had me feeling let down, except when I woke up I was relieved. Do you ever have dreams like that? The ones that are scary or frightening but nice to wake up from? This leads to another question…. would you rather have a good dream only to wake up and be disappointed, or wake up from a bad dream?

I would say SpaghettiOs are a great memory, but a bad dream because I haven’t had meat consistently for years. It all started back when a friend challenged me to cut meat out for a month. More on that here and here. In the last year or so, I’ve added fish back but only a couple of times a year when it’s fresh fish caught by my dad in Florida. I figured if Jesus ate fish, so will I.

Wow, this post is all over the map and I left you with a spiritual awakening about Jesus and fish. I really only had plans to talk about SpaghettiOs. Remember the ones with sliced hot dogs instead of meatballs? Those were interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness